The item Avoiding politics : how Americans produce apathy in everyday life, Nina Eliasoph represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Boston University Libraries.

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Nina Eliasoph's vivid portrait of American civic life reveals an intriguing culture of political avoidance. Open-ended political conversation among ordinary citizens is said to be the fount of democracy, but many Americans try hard to avoid appearing to care about politics. To discover how, where, and why Americans create this culture of avoidance, the author accompanied suburban volunteers, activists, and recreation club members for two and a half years, listening to them talk - and avoid talking - about the wider world, both within their groups and in their encounters with government, the media, and corporate authorities. This is a unique book which challenges received ideas about culture, power, and democracy, while exposing the hard work of producing apathy. Its clear exposition of the qualitative methods used also makes it exceptionally useful for students of political and cultural sociology, communications, and politics

Nina Eliasoph's vivid portrait of American civic life reveals an intriguing culture of political avoidance. Open-ended political conversation among ordinary citizens is said to be the fount of democracy, but many Americans try hard to avoid appearing to care about politics. To discover how, where, and why Americans create this culture of avoidance, the author accompanied suburban volunteers, activists, and recreation club members for two and a half years, listening to them talk - and avoid talking - about the wider world, both within their groups and in their encounters with government, the media, and corporate authorities. This is a unique book which challenges received ideas about culture, power, and democracy, while exposing the hard work of producing apathy. Its clear exposition of the qualitative methods used also makes it exceptionally useful for students of political and cultural sociology, communications, and politics

1. The mysterious shrinking circle of concern -- 2. Volunteers trying to make sense of the world -- 3. "Close to home" and "for the children": trying really hard not to care -- 4. Humor, nostalgia, and commercial culture in the postmodern public sphere -- 5. Creating ignorance and memorizing facts: how Buffaloes understood politics -- 6. Strenuous disengagement and cynical chic solidarity -- 7. Activists carving out a place in the public sphere for discussion -- 8. Newspapers in the cycle of political evaporation -- 9. The evaporation of politics in the US public sphere -- App. 1. Class in the public sphere -- App. 2. Method

1. The mysterious shrinking circle of concern -- 2. Volunteers trying to make sense of the world -- 3. "Close to home" and "for the children": trying really hard not to care -- 4. Humor, nostalgia, and commercial culture in the postmodern public sphere -- 5. Creating ignorance and memorizing facts: how Buffaloes understood politics -- 6. Strenuous disengagement and cynical chic solidarity -- 7. Activists carving out a place in the public sphere for discussion -- 8. Newspapers in the cycle of political evaporation -- 9. The evaporation of politics in the US public sphere -- App. 1. Class in the public sphere -- App. 2. Method